Lee Jong-chan (Phys Ph.D candidate) was elected the first student president of the graduate school on Jan. 31.

The election was held for four days between Jan. 26-27 on online, Jan. 28 and 30 for off-line with 17.7% of the votes. Due to the system error, the off-line election was prepared as well as the originally planned online election. Out of 1634 Korean graduate students, 17.7 percent - 280 students voting online and 10 voting on off-line - voted in the election.

The presidential contest was close. Lee won over vying presidential candidate Ahn Byung-Nam (Phys Ph.D candidate) with 58.62 percent of the vote.

While the campaign chairman agreed with the right for international students to vote in principle, the campaign concluded without any English notice for international students.

In his election manifesto, Lee urged for the necessity for the legislative organ which develops an opinion or position about a topic or issue from the standpoint of graduate students. The student president of the graduate school can participate in the POSTECH council as the representative of graduate students, and deliver their views. The POSTECH council is an organization in which the representatives consult about important issues regarding the university like development plan, school regulation, and budgets. The POSTECH council is composed of 11 members including the student president, and the student president of the graduate school.

Unlike the traditional representative of graduate students, the newly elected student president of the graduate school has effective representation as the present of the legislative organ, the Graduate Student Body. According to the revised rules of the Graduate Student Body, it consists of the Graduate Student Council, the Steering Committee, the student president and the vice president of the graduate school, the Dormitory Union, and the International Student Union. Also, the Steering Committee is comprised of the following members: the student president of each department, the student president and vice president of the graduate school, the president of the Dormitory Union, and the president of the International Student Union. While the Graduate Student Council will be concentrating primarily on approving the issues like the academic operating system and budgets, the Steering Committee is a legislative organ which can be delegate to say of the Graduate Student Council.

“Being the student president of the graduate school is an opportunity to assist to construct a sustainable graduate student body which represents our position to the school authorities,” Lee said. “Policies which unrepresented and ignored the opinion or position of graduate students had caused a backlash. Failing to cope with the resistance, the communication gap, accompanied disappointment, has been getting bigger and bigger. The graduate student body should be established as a platform to make oneself heard.”